Three New UNESCO Heritage Sites to Visit in 2017

Every year UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) adds a number of special places to its ever-growing list of World Heritage Sites. These places are recognized to be of outstanding cultural or natural value – places that we protect and respect so that we along with future generations can enjoy them.

There are currently 1052 UNESCO World Heritage Sites around the world, and they range from the Taj Mahal to the Great Barrier Reef, Stonehenge to the Galapagos Islands.

In 2016, UNESCO added 21 new sites to the list. We’ve featured three of our favourites below, in Europe, North and South America. And of course, much like most places in the world, these can all be explored with a ToursByLocals guide.

Nelson's Dockyard, Antigua

The Antigua Naval Dockyard is one of the best-preserved examples of British colonial expansion in the Caribbean. This was Admiral Horatio Nelson’s home from 1784 to 1787, when he was sent to Antigua to enforce British rule over the Caribbean colonies. Today’s site is a beautifully restored glimpse of history, but is also a stark reminder of the labour of generations of enslaved Africans, without whom the docks would not exist.

For a glimpse of what life was like for your ancient ancestors, pay a visit to Gorham’s Caves along the eastern side of the Rock of Gibraltar. The steep limestone cliffs contain four caves with archeological and paleontological evidence of Neanderthals, spanning an incredible 100,000 years of occupation. This is the first UNESCO World Heritage site on Gibraltar.

Go back farther in time – much farther – at Mistaken Point, on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula. Here you can see the mind-boggling evidence of some of life’s earliest creatures: the 565 million-year-old sea floor that houses the oldest-known evidence of our planet’s first large, complex multi-cellular life forms.

Mistaken Point (just one of Newfoundland’s many colourfully-named locales!) is a 2-hour drive from St. John’s, where a ToursByLocals guide will happily help you make the journey to this ancient site. Bring good walking shoes – the best views require a bit of a hike.